


Best Friend

by TheGrungeInMe



Series: Boys [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 07:48:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21133184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGrungeInMe/pseuds/TheGrungeInMe





	Best Friend

Steve woke at 7, stretched and reached a hand over to where he would usually find a warm body of either the human or canine variety. He frowned when he felt nothing but a cool sheet. Groaning, he rolled out of bed and slid his feet into his slip ons. And scratched his belly, as he made his way to the kitchen/ lounge set up in their in search of a cup of coffee.

He found Billy laying on the carpet, his head resting on a cushion and hand petting Cherry, their golden retriever who lay in front of him. He was talking softly to Cherry, whose old milky eyes sparkled like she could hear Billys sweet nothings. Steve poured two cups of coffee and carried them before placing a cup near Billy before sitting on the carpet next to his best friends.

Billy placed a hand on Steves thigh as he continued to murmur to Cherry and Steve, after putting his coffee down, ran a hand through Billy’s hair and through the fur on the back of Cherry’s neck. Cherry’s tail thumped against the floor as she basked in the love of both of her owners.

* * *

An hour had gone by before Steve started to get Billy moving, pushing him towards the shower, and moving about the house to collect everything they would need for the beach that day. Blankets, towels, a picnic basket, leash and harness, Billy’s surfboard, a change of clothes for both of them, sun cream, a book for Steve to pretend to read. He left this collected pile on and near the couch as he walked into the bathroom after Billy had finished his shower and was walking to their room in all his golden glory looking for his clothes.

Billy pulled on a pair of faded blue torn jeans, a shirt he barely buttoned and a pair of converse before pulling his wetsuit out of the wardrobe. He went through the pile that Steve had left on the couch to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything before taking the pile from the apartment to the Camaro.

Steve had finished in the shower and was talking on the phone when Billy walked back into the apartment. He was dressed in his board shorts and flip flops. Cherry was still lying on the carpet but she had her leash and harness on. Steve hung up the phone and walked up to Billy, wrapping his arms around his middle and kissing him on the lips.

‘Ready to go?’ Steve Murmured.

Billy nodded his head, drying curls bouncing and kissed him once more before moving over to Cherry with a big smile on his face.

‘Is CherryPie ready for the beach?’ He crooned to the old dog whilst bending down to scoop her into his arms. Steve held the door open for him as he walked through and opened the door to the Camaro so Billy could place Cherry on the back seat.

The ride to the beach was slow as Mötley Crüe filtered through the speakers. The sun warmed the skin on Steve’s face and arm as he watched the city go by. Cherry looked out the window and occasionally thumped her tail as it wagged. She had always enjoyed car rides. As a puppy she would run across the back seat of the Camaro between the windows in her excitement to see everything the world had to offer her.

* * *

Steve would say he didn’t squeal when Billy picked him up and through him into the ocean from the jetty. Billy would say that Steve sounded like Dustin before his voice broke. Steve tackled Billy when he finally made it back to the sand. They grappled in the sand before racing to the water and jumping in. Cherry following slowly behind them.

Steve laid on a towel with the book sitting unopened in front of him. He watched Billy as he paddled out over the soft green blue of the ocean on his long board with Cherry. He didn’t go so far out that they were pounded with waves, but far enough that the board floated gently over the waves as they rolled in.

When Cherry was a puppy, she would go out deep with billy on his surfboard and then swim all the way back to the shore, she loved the beach, but where once she had been young and energetic and running up and down the sand and into the water, now she walked slowly along, smelling the shells and the seaweed that occasionally washed up. A keen sense of smell for a muzzle so grey.

Cherry and Billy eventually paddled back in from their place on the waves. The old dog unsteady as she found her feet again. They picked at the lunch Steve had packed. Roast chicken that was shared with Cherry, salad, and cake, that was also shared with Cherry.

Billy told Steve stories from when he first learnt to surf with his mum, and about the first time he took Cherry out with him. Steve listened to the calming tones of Billy’s voice as he painted picture after picture of memories for Steve. Cherry rested her  
head in Steve’s lap and watched her owners as they talked and stroked at her fur.

They stayed until the old dog began to fall asleep, then they reloaded the car and drove home. No music played this time, instead the boys listened to the old dog as she chased rabbits in her dreams.

* * *

Steve opened the door as Billy carried Cherry into their home, she was exhausted, the cancer taking a toll on her old body. Still when placed on her bed with her owners sitting by her, she wearily thumped her tail. Steve chopped up some liver for her. Her favourite meal which she ate with enthusiam from the plate placed in front of her.

Steve answered the door when the vet knocked and directed him towards the lounge room before taking the empty plate to the kitchen, Billy stroked the fur behind Cherry’s ears when he walked back into the lounge room. The vet was opening his back pack and pulling out his supplies that he had bought with him. He was conversing softly with Billy and he reached out to give Cherry a pat on her back.

Steve sat down and moved Cherry’s head into his lap, Billy moved so that he was lying down cuddling cherry with his head leaning against Steve’s thigh, burying his face into Cherry’s neck. Steve wove his hand through Billy’s curls and Cherry’s fur. The vet inserted an IV into Cherry’s leg, then looked at Steve. Steve nodded at the vet, and then leaned down to kiss Cherry’s head.

The vet inserted a needle into the drip, pushed the plunger and then removed the needle and IV drip when it was finished.

Billy pulled Cherry closer as he began to cry into her neck, telling her how much he loved her and how she was always going to be his CherryPie. Steve continued to run his hand through Billy’s hair and kissed Cherry’s head still resting in his lap, whispering to her his love and gratitude and how much she was going to be missed, and how much of a good girl she had always been.

Cherry’s eyes closed and her last breathe left her. Billy wailed, holding her even tighter, crying harder into the fur on the back of her neck, tears were rolling down Steve’s face as he leant even further forward and hugged both Billy and Cherry. Eventually Steve sat up and pulled Billy’s body against his own, holding him against his chest, Billy’s head resting on Steve’s shoulder as he cried into his neck. The vet pulled out a bag and started to move Cherry into it. Billy detached himself from Steve for a moment to hand the vet an old ratty pink teddy, it had been Cherry’s from when she was a puppy and had first came into their lives. The vet placed it into the bag with Cherry and zipped it up. He murmured to Steve that he would call when Cherry’s ashes were ready to be picked up and gave his condolences to the two broken men, before putting on his back pack and picking up Cherry to move her to his vehicle.

* * *

That night Steve held Billy tight in bed as they both cried, missing their fur baby, a huge gaping Cherry sized hole had been left in their life. The memories of her love and joy all around them, a bed, now empty, a food and water bowl in the kitchen that would never be eaten from again, toys that would never be played with, or offered to them when they were feeling sad.

Steve and Billy were two boys who never knew the true meaning of family until they had found each other. That family had been completed when they had bought home a puppy from the pound, the missing piece of their puzzle. Neither of them slept well, if at all, too caught up in the memories of the undying, unconditional love that only a dog can give.


End file.
